Culture shift re:
homosexuality, bisexuality, etc.

2009-FEB-03: CA: California supreme court expedites hearing: The
court has scheduled its hearing of oral arguments on the constitutionality of
Prop. 8 for MAR-05. This is considerably earlier than expected. They are
required to issue their ruling within 90 days of the arguments -- about
MAY-04. 1

Prop. 8 eliminated equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. About 45
briefs promoting the unconstitutionality of Prop. 8 have been filed by
municipalities, human rights agencies, liberal religious organizations, and
gay positive groups. A small number of conservative religious
organizations have filed briefs supportingd Prop. 8's constitutionality and
have asked the state to forcibly divorce about 18,000 married same-sex couples
against their will.

2009-FEB-05: HI: Hearings held on HB 444: The first of two hearings
were held by the House Judiciary Committee on a bill to create a
system of same-sex unions in Hawaii with all of the rights privileges and
obligations of opposite-sex marriages in the state.
More details.

2009-FEB-06: WY: House defeats constitutional amendment:
The Wyoming House overwhelmingly defeated a joint resolution that would have
defined marriage as between one man and one woman in the state constitution.
3
More details

2009-FEB-06: NJ: Judge permits divorce of same-sex couple:
Mary Jacobson, a New Jersey state judge ruled that the state recognizes
same-sex marriages performed outside of the state for the purpose of divorce.
A lesbian couple had married in Canada and sought a divorce in New Jersey.
4

2009-FEB-08: USA: Trends in polls on same-sex marriage (SSM): I stumbled
across a fascinating graph on the "swimming freestyle" weblog by Jay
McDonough. It is titled "Gay marriage will be legal by 2012." The graph is too
tiny to read, but its message is clear:

The vertical axis reads 0 to 100%. The horizontal axis ranges
from to 1986 to 2006. The red line indicates opposition to SSM; the blue line shows
support for SSM; the black line: don't know. In politics, momentum is everything. The
dots are presumably from various polls of randomly selected American adults
that did not give civil unions as an option. 2

2009-FEB-09: UT: Governor supports civil unions:
Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah (R) announced that he is backing a proposal for
civil unions in the state. He also backs the Common Ground Initiative -- two
bills dealing with GLBT rights. Recent polls show 70% opposition among the
public on civil unions. 9

2009-FEB-11: IA: Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION complains
about Civil Rights Commission: The Iowa Family Policy Center
promotes opposite-sex marriage, and denigrates same-sex marriage. They are
concerned about two bills in the Legislature which would expand the
enforcement powers of the Commission. They state that: "Instead of broadening
'civil rights,' these bills would further threaten to punish those who, for
conscience's sake, don't agree with giving special 'rights' to individuals who
engage in deviant sexual behavior." We suspect that they are referring to a
bill that adds sexual orientation to the existing civil rights legislation,
and thus would protect persons of all sexual orientations equally: whether
they be heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual. 9

2009-FEB-16: North America: First lesbian wedding on a soap:
ABC's "All
my children" featured daytime soap's first same-sex wedding. Needless to
say, a woman clergyperson officiated. She referred to the brides as
establishing a new family. Bianca
Montgomery (played by Eden Riegel) married Reese Williams (played by Tamara
Braun). Riegel said:

"When my character did first come out of the closet, there was a lot of
negative reaction. ... I think that the beauty of the show is that we were
able to reach people and get people sort of used to the idea."

Braun said:

"If you are brave enough to want to get married, especially with the
divorce rate as high as it is, then you should have that right no matter what
sex you are, who you love, what color you are, how many extra toes and feet
you have ... equal rights for all people."

There was the usual reaction:

Glenn Stanton of the fundamentalist Christian group Focus on the Family
said: "I think it is really important to understand that there are
a lot of things that people don't really want to see and don't want coming
into their homes, and lesbian weddings are certainly one of them."

The video was the second most popular feature on CNN's web site on the day of
the wedding.

Fortunately, every TV set has both a channel selector and an on/off button in
case the viewer doesn't want to see what is on a particular channel.

Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD) said: "It's reality. So when we see a lesbian couple
getting married on daytime drama, it simply reflects what's happening in the
real world. So in that sense, of course it is a victory." 5

PLEASE don't click on the arrow below if you don't want images coming into
your home of two women playing the roles of a loving committed couple getting
married.

2009-FEB-17: USA: Focus on the Family analyst complains about Hollywood:
Caleb Price, research analyst at Focus on the Family, said some
writers in Hollywood are attempting to desensitize the public to
homosexuality and "transgenderism."
He said:

"They will continue to push the boundaries of what is morally and
culturally permissible until Americans stand up to the studio execs and
advertisers that produce these programs and say, 'No more'."

2009-FEB-17: USA: Family Research Council's "Please send money"
mailing: Tony Perkins sent an Email to their mailing list raising
alarm at President Obama's "Agenda". Unfortunately, his description of
the agenda is unclear in places:

"Hate crimes laws that could lead to penalties for Christians who
publicly criticize homosexual behavior." [Unfortunately he didn't
mention that hate crime laws only kick in when a crime is committed --
like murder or aggravated assault].

Employment laws forcing businesses, even churches, to hire
homosexuals (and indoctrinate employees) [A better way to look at it
is that businesses would not be able to discriminate in employment on
the basis of sex, race, gender identity and sexual orientation.]

Abolish the federal Defense of Marriage Act and other laws against
counterfeit marriage. {Another way of looking at this is that loving,
committed couples -- at least in some states -- could marry and obtain
federal rights and obligations for themselves and their children that
were formerly reserved for only opposite-sex couples].

2009-FEB-22: CA: "Milk" wins two Oscars: "Milk", the
movie about the life and assassination of Harvey Milk, won two Oscars.
According to the Reconciling Ministries Network: "Many of the stars wore white
ribbons to the Oscars to advocate for marriage equality in the wake of Proposition 8."

Sean Penn won an Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role. During his acceptance
speech he said:

"And finally, for those, two last finallies, for those who saw the signs of
hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those
who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate
their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue
that way of support."

Dustin Lance Black won an Oscar for Writing (Original Screenplay). During his acceptance speech, he said:

"When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a
conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the
story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my
life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and
then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married."

"I wanna? I wanna thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when
there was pressure not to. But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from
us 30 years ago, I think he'd want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian
kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than [sic] by their
churches, by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful,
wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God
does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights
federally, across this great nation of ours. Thank you. Thank you. And thank
you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk." 8

2009-FEB-25: ON: Ruling by the Human Rights Tribunal of
Ontario: We stumbled across a ruling in a human rights case involving an
evangelical group Christian Horizons
(CH)and a former employee, Connie Heintz, a lesbian. CH operates
a chain of homes for mentally disabled adults in Ontario, Canada. Their
now discontinued Lifestyle and
Morality statement referred to homosexual behavior as "unnatural,"
"immoral," and "contrary to the Scriptures." Adjudicator Michael Gottheil
ruled on 2008-APR-15 that the evangelical group had created a poisonous
work environment that forced Connie to leave. In his ruling, Gottheil
wrote a rather powerful statement:

"Christian Horizon's policy is discriminatory. While some elements of
Canadian society may continue to debate whether gays and lesbians should be
treated equally and entitled to equal rights and opportunity, from a legal
perspective that debate has ended." 7